This story garnered a lot of coverage recently, not just in the Telegraph and Independent, but also in the BBC, the Guardian, the Mirror and a host of local sources. Which would be fine, if all of those outlets made it absolutely clear that this story was sourced by an insurance company:

Simon Cox, a funeral cost expert at Royal London, said: “Our study shows people are striving to meet funeral price hikes, which they have little control over.

“Given the stressful situation, shopping around for a funeral is often not an option.

“Instead people are coping by cutting back on non-essentials if possible, and reconsidering how loved ones are buried.

While it’s undoubtedly true that funerals are costly affairs, it’s equally true that there’s a clear financial incentive for an insurance company to ensure people are afraid that their loved ones won’t have enough money to pay for their burial once they’re gone. I’m sure it won’t be a surprise to Royal London if they see an increase in interest in their life insurance policies as a result of stories like this. As ever with PR, it’s hard to distinguish the genuine message from the sales hook.

Good Beer Guide salutes the no-frills boozers squeezing into unlikely spaces that are growing in number and offering greater choice for drinkers

They have popped up in former butchers’ shops, pet grooming parlours and even undertakers – and the growth in tiny no-frills boozers across the UK, tipped to number 200 this year, is being hailed as spearheading a revival in the enjoyment of real ale.

Britain is going potty for real ales, it seems. Which is great news for CAMRA, the body behind this story:

The burgeoning micropub scene is helping to bring real ale to spaces where a traditional pub would not be appropriate, filling gaps on high streets and improving choice for drinkers, according to the Campaign for Real Ale’s (Camra) 2016 Good Beer Guide, published on Thursday, which also reports a 10% rise in the number of UK breweries for the third consecutive year.

It’s the death of a great tradition, as English as fish and chips and colonialism, but sadly the great British Sunday roast is on the way out. No wonder this made national news in three separate newspapers!

Except, of course, this isn’t quite news – it’s an advert for products which fall under the remit of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board:

But while roast potatoes might be disappearing from our tables, research from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board revealed that sales of mashed potatoes was up by 20 per cent.

Mike Whittemore, head of beef and lamb trade marketing at the AHDB, told trade magazine The Grocer: “Consumers are crying out for a new approach to the roasting category, but the way many retailers present and market roasting joints does not reflect this.

“Roast sales are declining but the supermarkets need to understand why. We have got to think differently about how to fill that void.”

A new study has shown that people are nearly 20% less likely to cook a roast than we were 10 years ago, possibly indicating people’s misconception that preparing a Sunday lunch is expensive and time consuming.

Red Tractor has announced the launch of its “Sunday Lunch Heroes” campaign to celebrate Britain’s culinary heroes while championing to save the Sunday lunch, which is in decline.

Mixing Barack Obama and Chris Smalling – what an embarrassing mistake to make! I imagine there’s an intern out there who is pretty red-faced! But, of course, it’s an easy mistake to make, isn’t it? After all, all it takes is for an intern to do a Google search for Chris Smalling but accidentally type the words ‘Barack Obama’ by mistake, then find that very famous photo that definitely exists of Barack Obama wearing this season’s England shirt, and then fail to recognise one of the most famous men in the world and use that photo in place of Chris Smalling.

After that, it’s a simple case of nobody at his company stopping to question why the President of the USA is on a mug, wearing an England shirt (we all remember when Obama posed for that photo in an England shirt, right?), and for no printer to notice the error either (and I’ve worked extensively in print design and can confirm, when it comes to printing merchandise like this, that there’s typically at least half a dozen conversations around design specs, plus the need to sign off a proof of every product before a full print run).

Clearly it’s a mistake that absolutely anybody could make… well, primarily anybody who wanted to get the name of their online surplus stock wholesale company into as many media outlets as possible:

Andy White of Wholesale Clearance UK, which specialises in buying end-of-line stock and factory seconds, said it had knowingly bought the mugs when they were offloaded by a merchandising company.

If we stop for even a moment to think about the validity of the official story behind these mugs, it’s clear it simply doesn’t hold up. Even now, more than 24 hours since the story broke, a Google image search for Chris Smalling shows hundreds of photos of the Manchester United player… and zero photos of Barack Obama.

What’s more, a photo of Obama in an England shirt simply does not exist – so it had to be photoshopped. Are we to believe the ‘bleary-eyed intern’ accidentally photoshopped a photo of the world leader into an England shirt ‘by mistake’?

There simply is no route by which this story could have happened as told in the media. This is, in my opinion, the clearest of PR stunts from Wholesale Clearance UK.

What’s more, it’s not the first story of this nature to involve Wholesale Clearance UK. Remember when William and Kate were still pregnant, and we didn’t know if Baby George was actually going to be a Georgina? Remember the tale of the memorabilia firm who jumped the gun and printed a job lot of ‘Royal Princess’ plates? Here’s the Daily Mail’s version of events:

‘To celebrate the birth of the Royal PRINCESS’: Firm left with 5,000 unsold plates after wrongly assuming Kate would have a girl

The birth of Prince George has been a massive boon for many manufacturers, but one company lost out after it produced 5,000 commemorative plates celebrating the arrival of a ‘Royal Princess’.

Other objects produced to mark the historic birth this week include Lego, dolls and an official porcelain collection – but most had the wisdom to wait and find out the baby’s sex before launching their memorabilia.

However, one unnamed firm supposedly had a tip-off from a royal insider that the Duchess of Cambridge was set to give birth to a girl, and designed plates with the message: ‘To celebrate the birth of the Royal Princess’.

Once again we have an un-named memorabilia firm making an unfortunate-but-comic screw up, and once again who bought up their useless stock?

The useless memorabilia was snapped up by online retailer Wholesale Clearance UK, which is selling the plates in lots of 50, with each set costing £149 – or £2.98 per item.

As with the Obama England mugs, this story simply doesn’t pass the sniff test: the firm created 5,000 plates assuming the baby would be a girl. Did they also release a range of plates based on the Royal baby being male? If they did, I can’t find them. There absolutely are suchplatesavailable, but none with a remotely similar design to the Royal Princess range (which are, incidentally, still on sale on Wholesale Clearance’s website). Did the unnamed company really only make Royal Princess plates? Or did they also make Royal Prince plates, but inexplicably chose to create a whole new design for them, knowing only one of the two designs would ever be on general sale?

What’s more, take a look at that Royal Princess plate – who the hell is that baby in the middle of it?

Why would a firm commemorate the birth of a child who wasn’t yet born, at a time when they didn’t know the gender, using a photo of a baby who wasn’t the actual baby? When the more sensible alternative would be to have no photo of a baby at all? Even if the royal baby actually was female, the plate would have been worthless, given that the photo wasn’t of the correct baby. Are we really meant to believe that any memorabilia firm in the world would make such a decision, rather than running without a baby photo at all? Do we really think, even for a moment, that there is any truth to this story?

It seems clear that both the Obama mug story and the Royal Princess plate story are nothing more than paper-thin attention-grabbing PR stunts from Wholesale Clearance Ltd – and given the huge impact and universally-credulous coverage the stunt has received from the mainstream media, it seems like it was a successful stunt at that.

Did you see the story about mankind’s fear of the impending rise of the robots? Chances are you did, with widespread coverage of the story including appearances in the Guardian, Times, Daily Mail and Daily Star:

Humans hope robots of the future will make love not war

A fifth of Britons have said they would have sex with an android but considerably more fear the rise of the machines will threaten mankind.

One in three, perhaps influenced by the likes of the Terminator franchise, believe that robots will spell the end of the human race.

Perhaps more pressing however is that almost as many are concerned they could lose their job to intelligent machines.

The Times and the Daily Mail, amply illustrating their differing priorities, there. However, whether we’re fighting or fucking our new robot brethren, the source of the story remains the same:

The survey was completed by 2,000 British people to mark the launch of new sci-fi TV police drama, Almost Human, which features an android cop.

Curiously, the list of jobs which could be taken over by robots didn’t include ‘journalist’ – when given the number of outlets who ran this simple copy/paste of a One Poll survey press release, it seems an industry ripe for automation.

Selfie has been named the Word of the Year 2013 by Oxford Dictionaries, beating twerk, binge-watch and showrooming to the honour.

The word selfie is described as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”. And it has grown in popularity over recent months thanks to millions posting the pictures online.

Celebs such as Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus have added to the trend by regularly posting selfies on social media sites such as Instagram or Twitter.

As open-goal occasions for getting PR into the news, Halloween is up there only with Christmas, Valentine’s Day and ‘Blue Monday’. Which is why it was no surprise to see headlines highlighting the fear-factor of classic horror films:

It probably says a reasonable amount about the state of the British press that a story categorised by the Guardian in their ‘Culture: Film’ section is, in the Daily Mail, considered a ‘Science’ story. However, it’s not hard to see how the Daily Mail was confused – after all, the story talks about tracking heart rates and monitors. It certainly looks like science. But what was the source of the story?

Website Play.com polled 10,000 users to find the 10 films that most frightened customers, then used heart rate monitors to find out which scenes delivered the greatest chills.

Clearly this is nothing more than an movies-and-games website looking to secure a few headlines in the press, via their PR agency Hotwire PR.

If you think the blog post Hotwire PR published recounting their work seemed to resemble the article in the Daily Mail closely, you should see the press release they sent out to journalists – from which almost all of the Daily Mail’s article was lifted wholesale.

When does your weekend start? Earlier than you’d imagine, if you believe the newspapers:

Does your weekend start at 2.39pm today?

A survey has found that 2.39 on a Friday afternoon is the time when many employees shift into weekend mode. Workers get that Friday feeling soon after lunch, and spend much of the afternoon browsing Facebook & emailing friends. Many put this down to having worked overtime the rest of the week. Does your weekend start now?

Did the Mail remember to leave in the name of the corporate paymasters behind the story? The company with a vested interest in having people kick back on Friday afternoons to plan their weekend? Of course they did:

The research, commissioned by British Airways, found the Friday afternoon wind-down often consists of using Facebook, arranging weekend plans and online banking.

Robin Glover-Faure, Head of Shorthaul for British Airways, said: ‘With this research revealing that Brits are switching off for the weekend slightly earlier than the traditional 5pm, it’s clear to see that planning ahead and having exciting activities lined up is more important than ever.’

Certain dates in the calendar provide such reliable touchpoints for PR types that they’re tantamount to open goals – such as Christmas, Valentines Day… and, more recently, Halloween. Here’s a slightly opaque opening gambit from the Guardian:

Are you scared of public speaking?

In a new survey commissioned to uncover our odd phobias, public speaking came out higher than dying. While the number one phobia was the loss of family or friends, fear of public speaking (glossophobia) appeared at number three on the list. Are you scared of addressing a crowd? Is public speaking one of your biggest fears?

That’s a bit more like it – just in time for Halloween, it’s good that we have such cutting-edge research into what we all find creepy and scary. Including:

Other unexpected horrors are the telly breaking down and clowns. Bizarre, but true.

Define true?

The findings come from a survey commissioned by London visitor attraction Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Ah, true as in ‘meaningless PR intended to advertise a museum dedicated to scary and unusual things’, gotcha.

“There are many common fears that a lot of us share but here at Ripley’s we celebrate all that is unusual across the globe… so delving into our more bizarre phobias was fascinating,” said Natascha Crump, general manager at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London.

“It is interesting to find out about people’s fears of nylon sheets, chickens and being the sole survivor of an apocalypse.

“It is also curious to see the affect that modern life is having on our fears as responses such as losing your laptop, the television breaking and being cut off from social media featured in the list of the UK’s phobias.”

From a sober debate on the pressures of public speaking, to pogonophobia and broken televisions – Ripley’s certainly managed to cut their cloth to suit all takers with this story.

Equally, it’s rare and refreshing for PR stories to come with disbelief built right in as an option – I think I’ll choose not to believe this research, Ripley, thank you very much.

A screaming baby or a TV in a child’s room can lead to the parents’ divorce, claims new series

As any parents of a young child who is a problem sleeper will confirm, permanent tiredness and constant irritability can put a huge strain on your relationship. In fact, according to a survey, lack of sleep is a big factor in divorce and separation for a third of couples.

Ahead of a new series on the subject, a poll carried out for Channel 4 suggests the average parent surveyed got fewer than six hours of sleep a night. It also found that three in 10 couples who had split up said sleep deprivation since having their child was a factor in the breakup. Nearly 45% said they had dozed off in a place they shouldn’t have or was unsafe, with one in 20 admitting to falling asleep at the wheel of their car.

This particular story is a little thorny and a little tricky to unpick. For one, the Observer article (if not the Mail) makes it clear up front that this research came from the TV show ‘Bedtime Live’ – in fact it was release specifically to promote the show.

Another complication is the involvement of respected researcher Dr Tanya Byron, who appears to do robust work. Perhaps, then, this isn’t simply a case of spurious researched being used to prop up the advertising for a TV show? Perhaps this is legit?

You’d certainly be forgiven for thinking so, however I’m not sure things are so clear and above-board – for instance, note the quotes from Dr Byron supporting the findings:

‘I see people whose children have chronic sleep problems and they’ll say things like their children get really upset if they try to send them to bed.

‘Well, I promise you, they won’t hate you in the morning when they’ve had a proper rest.

‘Our generation struggles with discipline much more than any other, but the lack of boundaries will only cause more and more difficulties.

‘From a clinical perspective, a lot of those I see in my own clinics, predominantly children, have underlying issues with not getting enough sleep, even if that isn’t the problem they are presenting with.

As you’ll see, this says nothing at all about the headlien claim that researchers discovered how sleepless nights lead to divorce – this, clearly, is a quote from Dr Byron on her participation in the show.

Instead, the ‘research’ which uncovered this startling fact was an online poll conducted, I believe, via Bad PR regulars OnePoll – I certainly took part in a very similar survey on their site recently. If so, I’d consider the headline-grabbing statistic that marriages are ending over sleepless nights and crying babies to be highly suspicious.

What’s more, if I were Dr Byron, I might want to have a word with the show’s producers, to make sure future press releases made it very clear which claims came from the academic and which from the PR machine.